Q Mahjongg Game Played With A Chinese Poker Deck

ABSTRACT

A card game with similarity to mahjongg is played by two to four players with a deck of 52 cards containing five wild cards, three suits with nine numbers in sequence and five groups of four identical cards in which a series of hands are played in which each player progressively takes a turn starting as the dealer and each hand is scored to come up with a total score and the total scores for all the hands in the series of hands are added up for settlement. Each hand is begun by dealing each player seven cards and using the remainder of the deck as a draw pile. A drawing player (other than the dealer whose discard starts a discard pile) takes one of three steps. First, if the drawing player has four of the same cards, the player can declare a gong operation, draw another card, and then proceed again with another gong operation or one of the following two steps. Second, the player can end the hand by declaring a winning hand containing a pair of identical cards and two triplets; the triplets can either be a pong group of three identical cards or a tsee sequence of three consecutive numbers in a single suit of cards. Third, the player can discard a card face up on the draw pile. The play follows sequentially unless another player out of sequence invokes a rule for picking up the top card in the discard pile.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation-in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/804,180 filed May 17, 2007 which itself is a continuation-in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/058,471 filed Feb. 14, 2005, entitled “CHINESE POKER DECK,” the disclosures of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is in the field of card games played with the Chinese Poker Deck™.

BACKGROUND

For well over 400 years, there has only been one universally popular card deck, namely the International 52-card pack, known to people all over the world. A myriad of games have been invented for this 52-card deck ranging from family games for kids of all ages, adult games such as Bridge and friendly Poker to casino games such as Baccarat, Blackjack and the currently vastly popular casino Poker game, Texas Hold'em. Through the years past, there have been numerous other card decks introduced specifically for playing one or more card games. However, there has never been another card deck like the International 52-card pack so well loved, respected and played by people of all ages for as long as we can remember.

As it turns out most people believe today that the International 52-card pack has its origin traced back to China circa 10^(th) Century A.D. One of the reasons for this conclusion is the fact that the Chinese were known to be the only people that knew how to make thick paper during that time. Through the Silk Road, the early version of the card deck found its way through the hands of merchants to Central Asia. During the early 13^(th) Century, it was the crusaders that brought the four-suited decks with court cards evolved in the Moslem world to Europe. For the hundreds of years that followed, it was the Europeans that finally developed and drafted the final version of what is the International 52-card pack of today.

During the past two decades, as more and more affluent Chinese and Asians gamblers, a direct result of the so-called “Globalization Process” taking place, came to Las Vegas and Atlantic City to play, there has been a growing sense of opportunity for the casinos to come up with new games in order to attract the attention of these new customers. Common sense will have it that if these new games could be devised based upon the cultural folklores and ancient concepts that the Chinese and Asians revere, such as Yin Yang (two opposing forces) and Feng Shui (wind and water), the chance of these new games being enthusiastically accepted by the new corners will be greatly enhanced.

Furthermore, if these new games could blend the old and popular Chinese gambling games such as Mahjongg, Tin Gau, Sic Bo and Fan Tan(the so-called “Big Four”), with the traditional western style gambling games such as Roulette, Poker, Blackjack, Baccarat etc., the so-called gaming fusion of the East and West, then the chance of success should even be greater.

A direct result of this thinking led to the invention of the so-called Chinese Poker Deck by the current inventor (U.S. application Ser. No. 11/058,471 filed Feb. 14, 2005 referenced herein). The Chinese Poker Deck was created from scratch but based upon the eastern cultural thinking and the concept of the International 52-card pack, or the Western Deck, in order to take full advantage of the idea of gaming fusion between the East and the West. For that reason, the Chinese Poker Deck or the Eastern Deck was created also with 52 cards. Furthermore, its content reflects not only a skillfully extracted portion of the 2,000 years old Mahjongg tile set, but also cleverly blends in the five most revered Chinese Feng Shui parameters into the deck. This unique concept of construct for the Eastern Deck enables literally any card game that has been created for play with the Western Deck can also be analogously played with the Eastern Deck. For example, there are parallels for all the Poker games played with the Western Deck including the vastly popular Texas Hold'em. When this Poker game is played with the Eastern Deck, it is called the Yangtze Hold'em™. For the casino game of Baccarat for the Western Deck, there is Taraccab™ for the Eastern Deck. Even the famous Bridge game played with the Western Deck has its counterpart called the Dragon Bridge™ played with the Eastern Deck.

While the creation of the Chinese Poker Deck has handsomely fulfilled its objective to fuse a significant part of the Western gaming concept with the East, it has an even greater mission to accomplish and that is to save the venerable 2,000 years old Mahjongg tile game in time from its literal extinction. Few people are actually aware of the fact that the traditional Mahjongg tile game, one of China's national treasures, is heading towards extinction if no attempt is made to save it. The reason is that it has today outlived the modern lifestyle of people, particularly those that are living in China and most Asian countries. In that part of the world where Mahjongg used to rule, young folks today working long hours and living in small quarters with family have neither the space nor time to learn how to play this complex game. Thus, after perhaps a couple more generations, the traditional game of Mahjongg might well become a fond memory of the past.

The traditional Mahjongg game, played with 136 tiles, is actually a rather complex game to learn how to play. On the average it would probably take hundreds of actual playing hours before one can aptly call oneself a Mahjongg player. Even then, he or she is a novice at best. Furthermore, four players are required to play the game. The game also needs to be set up with a square table big enough to sit four comfortably and equipped with a soft pad on top for reducing the sound during playing and shuffling of the tiles. The Mahjongg set itself meanwhile is rather heavy and difficult to move around or store. But the most damaging circumstance for the game is still the limitation of space and time for new corners especially young folks to learn to play the game. Thus unless something is done to salvage this 2,000 years old venerable game, very few people, especially the young folks, will know how to play it and that will be equivalent to the game eventually becoming extinct.

Thus it is an objective of the present invention to come up with a new game that will not only keep the spirit and fun of the old Mahjongg game but reformulate and simplify it such that it will fit into people's modern styles of living. This and further objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art in connections with the drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment set forth below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is generally directed to a game for two to four players played with a deck of 52 cards containing five wild cards, three suits with nine numbers in sequence and five groups of four identical cards in which a series of hands are played in which each player progressively takes a turn starting as the dealer and each hand is scored to come up with a total score and the total scores for all the hands in the series of hands are added up for settlement. Each hand is begun by dealing each player seven cards and using the remainder of the deck as a draw pile. The dealer begins play by drawing a card and taking one of three steps. First, if the dealer has four of the same cards, the dealer can declare a gong operation, draw another card, and then proceed again with another gong operation or one of the following two steps. Second, the dealer can end the hand by declaring a winning hand containing a pair of identical cards and two triplets; the triplets can either be a pong group of three identical cards or a tsee sequence of three consecutive numbers in a single suit of cards. Third, the dealer can discard a card face up to start a draw pile. After the dealer discards, the play follows sequentially and the next player either draws a card from the draw pile or the top card in the discard pile, unless another player out of sequence invokes a rule for picking up the top card in the discard pile. After a card is drawn from either the draw pile or the discard pile, the drawing player takes one of the same three steps the dealer could have taken, and play continues until a winning hand is declared or the draw pile is exhausted and no player picks up the last top card in the discard pile.

In a first, separate group of aspects of the present invention, the rules for drawing the top card in the discard pile are that if two or more players want to pick up the same card, the first player according to a player position ranking with the highest hierarchical ranking from a hierarchical ranking system will be allowed to pick up the top card in the discard pile. The hierarchical ranking system, in order from highest to lowest, is that the top card in the discard pile will be used to create the winning hand, perform the gong operation, form the pong group, or form the tsee group, and the player position ranking with the highest ranking is the drawing player followed by the remaining players based upon a preselected rule based upon the unique designations for the hand.

In other, separate aspects of the present invention, the set of scoring rules is that a basic structure score is calculated for the winning hand by combining a basic structure score with any applicable enhancement score. The basic structure score is that if the winning hand is a chicken chow hand in which the two triplets are a first pong group and a second tsee sequence, the chicken chow hand is worth half a fang; if the winning hand is an all sequence hand in which the two triplets are two tsee sequences, the all sequence hand is worth one fang; and if the winning hand is an all 3-of-a-kind hand in which the two triplets are two pong groups, the all 3-of-a-king hand is worth two fangs.

The fang scoring structure is a half fang is worth 1 unit, one fang is worth 2 units, two fang is worth four units, three fang is worth 8 units, four fang is worth 16 units, five fang is worth 32 units and six fang is worth 64 units and, if the winning player is the dealer, the unit score is doubled.

In further, separate aspects of the present invention, unless the winning hand has two tsee triplets, the following enhancements each add one fang to the enhancement score: a pong group of a preselected unique designation not associated with any of the players or the unique designation of dealer and/or the winning player, the winning hand does not contain any wild card, the draw card is obtained from the draw pile, the winning hand is obtained by the gong operation or the winning hand is obtained by drawing the last available card from the draw pile.

When the wining hand is the all 3-of-a-kind hand and the winning player had two gong operations for the winning hand, four fangs is added to the enhancement score. If the winning hand is the all sequence hand, each of the following enhancements that apply will add one fang to the enhancement score: the winning hand does not contain any wild card, the draw card is obtained from the draw pile and the winning hand is obtained by drawing the last available card from the draw pile. In an all sequence hand, three fangs is added to the enhancement score if the two tsee sequences are in the same suit unless they are consecutive to each other, in which case four fangs is added.

In a still further, separate group of aspect of the present invention, if the winning party draws the top card in the discard pile as the draw card for the winning hand, the party that discarded said top card in the discard pile as the draw card for the winning hand is responsible for all scores of any other player due the winning party for said winning hand.

In yet another, separate group of aspects of the present invention, the deck has three suit designations of bamboo, circles and script, each with numbers 1 through 9, the five sets of four cards are each of the four wind directions of East, South, West and North and a Green Dragon and the five wild cards have feng shui designations (which may represent longevity, luck, wealth, health and fertility).

Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a game that has similarity to the game of mahjongg, but is played with a Chinese poker deck having fifty-two cards, five of which are played as wild cards.

This and further objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art in connection with the drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment set forth below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1. The Chinese Poker Deck™.

FIG. 2. The three suits of the Chinese Poker Deck™: (a) Circle; (b) Bamboo and (c) Script.

FIG. 3. The four wind directional cards of the Chinese Poker Deck™: (a) East; (b) South; (c) West and (d) North.

FIG. 4. The Green Dragon card of the Chinese Poker Deck™

FIG. 5. The five Feng Shui parameter cards of the Chinese Poker Deck™: (a) F1—Longevity; (b) F2—Luck; (c) F3—Wealth; (d) F4—Health and (e) F5—Fertility.

FIG. 6. A Pair of any cards in the Chinese Poker Deck™.

FIG. 7. A sequence of three cards in the Circle suit of the Chinese Poker Deck™.

FIG. 8. A group of 3-of-a-kind cards (West) in the Chinese Poker Deck™.

FIG. 9. An example of a winning hand in Q Mahjongg illustrating a pair of any cards and two groups of three cards (sequence of 3 cards in any suit or 3-of-a-kind cards) without the use of wild cards.

FIG. 10. An example of a winning hand in Q Mahjongg illustrating a pair of any cards and two groups of three cards (sequence of 3 cards in any suit or 3 —of-a-kind cards) with the use of one or more wild cards.

FIG. 11. The basic structure scores of a winning hand: (a) Chicken Chow; (b) All sequences and (c) All 3-of-a-Kind.

FIG. 12. Table of Enhancement Scores summary.

FIG. 13. Scoring table for four players.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention takes advantage of the availability of a newly invented deck of cards called the Chinese Poker Deck™. Like the International 52-card pack or the Western Deck (i.e. a deck of 52 cards, having four suits—clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades—each of which has 13 cards comprised of 2-10, jack, Queen, King and Ace), it also uses 52 cards, but the cards integrate various aspects of the traditional Chinese game of Mahjongg and Asian culture. The result is a novel deck that allows the East to meet the West, and vice versa.

The Chinese Poker Deck is comprised of 27 numbered cards in three suits and 25 additional non-suit cards as depicted in FIG. 1. The 27 numbered cards 1 are divided into three groups or suits—circles 2, bamboos 3 and scripts 4—each of which has none cards numbered 1 to 9 as more clearly shown in FIG. 2. The 25 additional non-suit cards 5 are divided into 16 wind cards (which is subdivided into four groups representing East 7, South 8, West 9 and North 10 winds and each wind has four identical cards), 4 green Dragon cards 11 (each of which is identical) and 5 Feng Shui cards 12. The four wind cards, viz. East, south, West and North are more clearly shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 4 depicts more clearly the Green Dragon card. The five Feng Shui cards are ranked from 1 to 5, 1 being the highest and each bears a unique Feng Shui parameter designation which, in an especially preferred embodiment, represents, from 1 to 5, respectively, Longevity, Luck, Wealth, health and Fertility as shown in FIG. 5. The wind and dragon cards might be compared to face cards of the International 52-card pack in that each such card is assigned a value of 10 in games in which the cards need to have a number value, such as in the of Lo Shu™ (Blackjack) while the five Feng Shui cards are assigned a value of 11 in such games.

The incorporation of the three suits of circle 2, bamboos 3 and scripts 4 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) into the Chinese Poker Deck™ ties the deck to the traditional Chinese game of Mahjongg which uses the same three suits. Similarly, Mahjongg also uses the four winds as well as dragons (namely green, red and white). However, unlike Mahjongg, the Chinese Poker Deck™ uses such symbols and designations in a new context, i.e., the context of a deck of 52 cards. Thus, the Chinese Poker Deck™ at once invokes a certain feeling of familiarity to one familiar with Mahjongg, while the 52-card deck also invokes a certain feeling of familiarity to one familiar with the traditional poker deck or the International 52-card pack (the Western Deck).

The Chinese Poker deck™ departs from any similarity to Mahjongg by the addition of five Feng Shui cards 5 (see FIGS. 1 and 5) which are not found in Mahjongg. Because of the pull of Feng Shui in the Chinese and Eastern culture, even though Feng Shui was not incorporated into the original Mahjongg game, its addition to the Chinese Poker Deck™ brings an additional type of familiarity to those familiar with its precepts. In addition, because there are 5 such cards, it allows the Chinese Poker Deck™ to be perfectly rounded out to 52 cards, maintaining a somewhat Yin Yang relationship to the Western Deck, which also has 52 Cards.™

The current invention, Q Mahjongg, is a reformulated version of the old game which uses a 136-tile set to play. The Q Mahjongg is played with the 52-card Chinese Poker Deck™ or Eastern Deck. Whereas each of the four players for the old game has 13 tiles, players of Q Mahjongg always only have 7 cards each whether 2, 3 or 4 players are playing the game. One can see right away that comparing Q Mahjongg with the old Mahjongg, the former is now much easier to set up and close down because one only needs a 52-card deck instead of 136 tiles to play the latter game. Furthermore, Q Mahjongg can be played virtually anywhere, indoor or outdoor. It requires very little space to play or for storage. The playing of the game is also very quiet, and allows 2, 3 or 4 people to play.

The Q Mahjongg game of the present invention can be played by 2-4 players using the Chinese Poker Deck™. In general this game is played almost exactly like the regular Mahjongg game but with the following exceptions:

-   -   Because the Chinese Poker Deck™ only has 52 cards (cards are         used in lieu of the traditional tiles) instead of the usual 136         tiles (with additional Flower tiles, 144), the Q Mahjongg set is         simplified with the following rule changes:         -   There is only ONE card each, instead of four, for each of             the members of the three suits, namely Circles [C], Bamboos             [B] and Scripts [S] for a total of 27 cards.         -   There is only the Green Dragon [GD] in this game and no Red             nor White Dragons, for a total of only 4 “dragon” cards.         -   There are the usual East [E], South [5], West [W] and North             [N] wind cards, four each for a total of 16 cards.         -   Finally five Feng Shui parameter cards, F1 to F5             respectively representing Luck (F1), Longevity (F2), Health             (F3), Wealth (F4) and Fertility (F5), are added. They are             wild cards meaning that each of these five cards can be used             to represent any card in the Chinese Poker Deck™ for the             playing of the game.     -   Because of the 52 cards, the usual Mahjongg hand of 13 tiles is         reduced to 7 cards and the winning hand has 8 cards instead of         the usual 14 tiles in regular Mahjongg.     -   The makeup of the winning hand for the Q Mahjongg is similar in         structure to the regular Mahjongg game. It comprises a pair of         any cards (see FIG. 6) and two triplets. A triplet is either a         sequence of 3 cards in any suit (see FIG. 7) or a group of a         3-of-a-kind cards (see FIG. 8). In the old Mahjongg game, the         winning hand comprises a pair of any tiles and four instead of         two triplets. Thus the simple winning rule of an 8-card hand for         Q Mahjongg is just one-two-three which means one pair of any         cards and two groups of three cards or triplets. Examples of         winning hands are shown in FIG. 9 when no Feng Shui or wild         cards are used and in FIG. 10 when one or more Feng Shui or wild         cards are used in the making of the winning hands.

How the Game is Played (Similar in Methodology to Regular Mahjongg Game)

-   -   1. Even though Q Mahjongg can be played by 2, 3 or 4 players,         there are only two types of players in Q Mahjongg. There is only         one “banker” and the others are “players”.     -   2. All players assume a unique playing position. Starting with         the banker (always East) and going clockwise, the other three         players assume respectively South, West and North. For two         players, the player locations are East and South. For three         players, the player locations are East, South and West.     -   3. Each hand of play belongs to one of four Wind rounds. Each         round has four playing hands with each player rotating clockwise         to be the banker after each hand of play. The first is the East         round, followed by South, West and North.     -   4. For 4 players, there are 4 wind rounds each having 4 hands of         play. For three players, there are three Wind rounds, namely         East, South and West and each having only three hands of play.         For two players, there are two Wind rounds, namely East and         South and each having only 2 hands of play.     -   5. To start the game, the banker deals four piles of seven cards         each face-down, one card at a time from left to right         (clockwise). The leftover cards are the “card deck” (face-down)         which is placed in the center. The banker keeps the leftmost         7-card pile for himself/herself and distributes the remaining         three piles to the other players clockwise from South (player to         dealer's left) to North (player to dealer's right) respectively.     -   6. The banker is the first to draw a card from the card deck and         to discard one (face-up) in order to improve his hand through         card exchanging with the draw deck. This is followed by the         other players taking their turn in a clockwise direction unless         it is interrupted by one or more operational plays (see below)         after which the card drawing sequence will be interrupted. But         the clockwise turn of play rule remains unchanged.     -   7. The goal here is for a player to improve his or her hand by         exchanging cards with the card deck or via operational plays         until a winning hand is attained. A player then scores or “Sik”         and that particular playing hand comes to an end.

The Operational Plays

-   -   1. For all operational plays to be described below, players'         priority to perform any such plays follows the clockwise         directional turn rule.     -   2. “Tsee” or simply “T”—the operation of taking in a discarded         card from any player in order to form a Sequence of 3 in any         suit. Any cards in the player's hand, including one or more Feng         Shui or wild cards can be used for this operation. The Sequence         of 3 formed as a result must be displayed face-up in front of         the player.     -   3. “Pong” or simply “P”—the operation of taking in a discarded         card from any player in order to form a group of 3-of-a-kind         cards. Again any cards in the player's hand, including one or         more Feng Shui or wild cards can be used to perform this         operation. The 3-of-a-kind card group formed as a result must be         displayed face-up in front of the player.     -   4. “Gong” or simply “G”—the operation of forming a 4-of-a-kind         card group by a drawn or discarded card to a 3-of-a-kind card         group in one's hand. Or by a drawn card to augment a 3-of-a-kind         card group already formed via an earlier “Pong” operation.         Player performing this operation draws a card from the bottom of         the card deck (not from the top) and then discards one of the         cards in his remaining hand.     -   5. “Sik”—a player attains a winning hand via either a self-drawn         card or by taking in a discarded card from any player. He or she         scores and terminates that particular playing hand.     -   6. “Wongg”—a situation when no player scores as the card deck         empties out. In this case no players win or lose and that         particular hand comes to an end. The banker remains unchanged as         another playing hand starts anew.

Other Occurrences During the Play

-   -   1. When a player collects a 4-of-a kind quadruplet on his/her         own (with or without the use of a wild card) in the player's         hand, the player may choose to display them face-up or face down         and draws a card from the bottom of the draw deck before         discarding a card to continue playing. This process is also         called “Gong”.     -   2. When a player discards a card that is scored by one of the         other players, that player is responsible for paying everybody's         (including the player's) winning indebtedness to the scoring         player.     -   3. When a player scores by drawing his/her own card, all players         pay for their own winning indebtedness to the scorer.     -   4. When a player officially declares that he/she scores but         actually does not because of mistake or oversight, the player is         responsible for paying the other players the top winning         indebtedness or six (6) Fangs allowed for by the game (see         below).     -   5. The player's priority to score via a discarded card from one         of the other players follows the same rule as the priority to         perform an operational play, namely in a clockwise direction         starting with the player who discards the winning card.

The Scoring

In Q Mahjongg the scoring is limited by a maximum of six levels or “Fangs”. The game's win-loss stake is dependent upon how much (how many units) one is willing to assign per Fang of the winning hand when it is scored by a player (non-banker) other than the banker. In Q mahjongg, one Fang is always assigned value of 2 units. Thus,

-   -   1. Half Fang . . . Banker scores worth 2 units; non-banker worth         1 unit     -   2. One Fang . . . Banker scores worth 4 units; non-banker worth         2 units     -   3. Two Fangs . . . Banker scores worth 8 units; non-banker worth         4 units     -   4. Three Fangs . . . Banker scores worth 16 units; non-banker         worth 8 units     -   5. Four Fangs . . . Banker scores worth 32 units; non-banker         worth 16 units     -   6. Five Fangs . . . Banker scores worth 64; non-banker worth 32         units     -   7. Six Fangs . . . Banker scores worth 128 units; non-banker         worth 64 units

In Q mahjongg, the total score as manifested in Fangs and units comprises two parts, namely the Basic Structure Score and the Enhancement Score according to the following rule:

Total Score=Basic Structure Score+Enhancement Score

Basic Structure Score of a Winning Hand

In Q mahjongg, there are only three basic structures of a winning hand. The first one is called the “Chicken Chow” and is worth half a Fang or 1 unit when the winning hand is scored by a non-banker player. The “Chicken Chow” is a one-two-three scoring structure of a pair of any cards, one sequence of three cards in any suit and one group of 3-of-a-kind cards. An example is shown in FIG. 11( a).

The second basic structure is “All Sequence” and is worth 2 units or 1 fang when the winning hand is scored by a non-banker player. The “All Sequence” is a one-two-three scoring structure with a pair of any cards and two sequences of three cards in any suit. An example is shown in FIG. 11( b).

The third basic structure is “All 3-of-a Kind” and is worth 4 units or 2 Fangs when the winning hand is scored by a non-banker player. The “All 3-of-a-Kind” is a one-two-three scoring structure with a pair of any cards and two groups of 3-of-a-Kind cards. An example is shown in FIG. 11( c).

The Enhancement Score of a Winning Hand

Dependent upon the contents of a scoring hand for a particular basic scoring structure as described above, the score of the winning hand can be enhanced. The enhancement contents are different for each of the above three basic scoring structures. They will be described separately for each of the three basic scoring structures below. They will also be summarized into an Enhancement Table as shown in FIG. 12.

Chicken Chow—Half a Fang or 1 Unit

The enhancement score is individually worth a one Fang increment if

-   -   1. The group of 3-of-a-kind cards are Green Dragons.     -   2. The group of 3-of-a-kind cards are Wind direction cards with         the correct Wind round.     -   3. The group of 3-of-a-kind cards are Wind direction cards with         the correct player location for the scorer.     -   4. The winning hand does not contain any Feng Shui or wild         cards.     -   5. The winning hand is scored via self-drawing and not via a         discarded card from the other players.     -   6. The winning hand is scored as a result of a “Gong” operation.     -   7. The winning hand is scored with the last available card from         the draw deck.

All Sequences—One Fang or 2 Units

The enhancement score is individually worth a one Fang increment if

-   -   1. The winning hand does not contain any Feng Shui or wild         cards.     -   2. The winning hand is scored via self-drawing and not via a         discarded card from the other players.     -   3. The winning hand is scored with the last available card from         the draw deck.

The enhancement score is individually worth a three (3) Fangs increment if

-   -   4. The two groups of sequences of three cards are from the same         suit.

The enhancement score is individually worth a four (4) Fangs increment if

-   -   5. The two groups of sequences of three cards are from the same         suit and are also contiguous.         All 3-of-a-Kind—2 Fangs or 4 Units

The enhancement score is individually worth a one Fang or 2 units

-   -   1. One of the two groups of 3-of-a-kind cards are Green Dragon     -   2. One of the two groups of 3-of-a-kind cards is Wind direction         cards with the correct Wind round.     -   3. One of the two groups of 3-of-a-kind cards are Wind         directional cards with the correct player location for the         scorer.     -   4. The winning hand does not contain any Feng Shui or wild         cards.     -   5. The winning hand is scored via self-drawing and not via a         discarded card from the other players.     -   6. The winning hand is scored as a result of a “Gong” operation.     -   7. The winning had is scored with the last available card from         the draw deck.

Special Circumstance

Any winning hand containing two groups of 4-of-a-kind cards is automatically awarded the highest scoring level (6 Fangs or 64 units).

Playing with Only 2 or 3 Players

The regular Mahjongg game is normally played with four players. Each player represents a “Wind” (direction) location, namely East (E), South (S), West (W) or North (N) respectively. Players rotate clockwise as Banker and every time when a hand is scored, the Banker location will advance one position in a clockwise direction. One full rotation of four Wind locations, namely starting from East to South, to West and finally to North is called one “Wind round” of play. The game is played in multiples of 4-Wind round. Thus one 4-wind round game comprises the playing of 16 hands. An 8-Wind round game comprises 2 4-wind round plays or the playing of 32 hands and so on.

The Q Mahjongg game is designed to be played by either 2, 3 or 4 players using the Chinese Poker Deck™. For two players, one only uses two “Wind” locations instead of the usual four, namely East and South only. Player No. 1 starts as the Banker and holds the East location and Player No. 2 (a player) the South location. For the next hand, Player No. 2 is now the Banker and holds the East location and Player No. 1 (now a player) holds the South location. There are no West or North “Wind” locations in this case. Thus one Wind round comprises only two hands of play and a 4-wind round comprises only 8 hands of play. All the regular rules pertaining to the playing of Q mahjongg game apply unchanged to the 2-player game. Because of this reason, it is easy for an individual to teach another individual to play the 2-player version of the Q Mahjongg game. Since the rules are basically the same as the regular Mahjongg game, once one masters the Q Mahjongg game, he or she will soon master the regular old Mahjongg tile game as well.

Similarly, three people can also play the Q Mahjongg game instead of four. In this case, only three “Wind” locations are used, namely East, South and West only. One round of play comprises only three hands of play. The Banker always assumes the East location while the player to his/her left assumes the South location and the third player the West location. For a 3-player Q mahjongg game, one Wind round comprises 3 hands of play. A 4-wind round game comprises 12 hands of play. Again, all the playing rules for Q Mahjongg apply also to the three-player version, just like they apply to the four-player version.

For ease of reference for players, FIG. 13 contains a listing of scores and enhancements applicable for use with four players.

While the invention has been described herein with reference to certain preferred embodiments, those embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and not to limit the scope of the invention. Additional embodiments thereof will be obvious to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this detailed description. For example, if one wanted to try to invoke the same game with its functions as is described herein, but depart further from mahjongg, one could create a deck that could be used to play the same functions but not invoke the familiarity of mahjongg. Thus, such a deck might not use the traditional mahjongg suits or the Wind directions or the Green Dragon, and might even use a sequence different than 1-9. Although such a deck would not be preferred, it could be used in connection with the present disclosure to capture the concepts taught herein. Similarly, the enhancements or scoring methods might be modified. In this regard, there are a number of ways to score mahjongg and the lack of unity is actually a detriment to universal learning; it is believed that the present scoring system will help promote more widespread use. However, one might easily image a rule that the number of fang obtainable not be limited to six fang, but have a higher or no limit. Also, while the present invention has been described by reference to physical cards, the teachings disclosed herein can easily be adapted for play in video poker games, or other electronic devices (such as cell phones, PDAs, and the like) or for play over a network (such as the Internet). In such scenarios, the play of the game taught in the present invention might be against other players, or even against programs of artificial intelligence, or, for learning purposes, the other players might be true “dummies” that can not form a winning hand, in which case the goal of the play could be to achieve the highest score playing a number of wind rounds which, in essence, is somewhat akin to a brand new form of solitaire using the game taught herein. And, of course, since mahjongg is often played with betting, it is easy to envision the present game being adapted for play as a table game at a casino where gambling is allowed. Further modifications are also possible in alternative embodiments without departing from the inventive concept.

Accordingly, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that still further changes and modifications in the actual concepts described herein can readily be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosed inventions as defined by the following claims. 

1. A game for two to four players played with a Chinese poker deck of 52 cards having three different sets of nine cards in three suits of cards, each of said nine cards in one of said three suits of cards bearing a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9, five different sets of four cards bearing a unique designation, and a set of five additional cards, each of which has a wild designation, comprising the steps of: (1) beginning a wind round in which a first of the players is a dealer while each of the remaining players is assigned one of the unique designations and a hand is played to a conclusion and then another of the players is made the dealer and another hand is played and this process is repeated until each of the players has been the dealer once, each of the hands of the wind round being played according to the following steps: (a) beginning the hand by dealing each of the players a set of seven cards from the deck and then using the remainder of the deck as a draw pile; (b) having the dealer begin as a drawing player who draws a draw card from the draw pile and then does one of the following: (i) performing a gong operation in which the drawing player declares a group of four of the same card and then draws an additional gong card from the draw pile and then either performs another gong operation or proceeds to do one of the following steps; (ii) ending the hand by declaring a winning hand; or (iii) discarding one of the drawing player's cards to form a discard pile in which discarded cards are discarded face up; (c) allowing each of the players in succession to become the drawing player who either draws one card from the draw pile or picks up the top card in the discard pile as the draw card unless another player claims the top card in the discard pile according to a preselected set of rules for drawing the top card in the discard pile, and then, after one of the players draws the draw card as the drawing player, the drawing player does one of the following until there are no more cards in the draw pile and no player picks up the last top card in the discard pile which results in the hand being declared a draw hand with no scoring: (i) performing the gong operation and then either performing another gong operation or proceeding to one of the following steps: (ii) ending the hand by declaring the winning hand; or (iii) discarding one of the drawing player's cards face up on the discard pile; and (d) scoring the winning hand according to a preselected set of scoring rules; wherein the winning hand must contain a pair of identical cards and two triplets, wherein a triplet is either a pong group of three identical cards or a tsee sequence of three consecutive numbers in a single suit of cards, and each of the cards from the set of five additional cards with the wild designation is a wild card that can be chosen to represent any card; and (2) adding up the scoring for each of the winning hands to determine a total scoring of the players for the wind round.
 2. The game of claim 1, wherein the preselected set of rules for drawing the top card in the discard pile is comprised of the following set of rules: if two or more players want to pick up the top card in the discard pile, the first player according to a player position ranking with the highest hierarchical ranking from a hierarchical ranking system will be allowed to pick up the top card in the discard pile; wherein the hierarchical ranking system is comprised of the following rankings, in order from highest to lowest: the top card in the discard pile will be used to create the winning hand; the top card in the discard pile will be used to perform the gong operation; the top card in the discard pile will be used to form the pong group; or the top card in the discard pile will be used to form the tsee group; and wherein the player position ranking with the highest ranking is the drawing player followed by the remaining players based upon a preselected rule based upon the unique designations for the hand.
 3. The game of claim 1, wherein the preselected set of scoring rules is comprised of the following: (a) a basic structure score is calculated for the winning hand according to the following basic structure scoring rules: if the winning hand is a chicken chow hand in which the two triplets are a first pong group and a second tsee sequence, the chicken chow hand is worth half a fang; if the winning hand is an all sequence hand in which the two triplets are two tsee sequences, the all sequence hand is worth one fang; and if the winning hand is an all 3-of-a-kind hand in which the two triplets are two pong groups, the all 3-of-a-king hand is worth two fangs; (b) an enhancement score is calculated for the winning hand if any of a plurality of possible enhancement conditions is met by the winning hand; (c) the basic structure score and the enhancement score are added together to get a total score of fang that is converted to a unit score according to a fang scoring structure as follows: a half fang is worth 1 unit; one fang is worth 2 units; two fang is worth 4 units; three fang is worth 8 units; four fang is worth 16 units; five fang is worth 32 units; and six fang is worth 64 units; and (d) if the winning player is the dealer, the unit score is doubled.
 4. The game of claim 3, wherein the plurality of possible enhancement conditions is comprised of the following enhancement conditions: (1) if the winning hand is the chicken chow hand or the all 3-of-a-kind hand, each of the following enhancements that applies will add one fang to the enhancement score: the first pong group is comprised of a preselected unique designation not associated with any of the players; the first pong group is comprised of the unique designation that matches the dealer; the first pong group is comprised of the unique designation that matches the winning player; the winning hand does not contain any wild card; the draw card is obtained from the draw pile; the winning hand is obtained by the gong operation; the winning hand is obtained by drawing the last available card from the draw pile; (2) if the winning hand is the all 3-of-a-kind hand and the winning player had two gong operations for the winning hand, four fangs is added to the enhancement score; (3) if the winning hand is the all sequence hand, each of the following enhancements that applies will add one fang to the enhancement score: the winning hand does not contain any wild card; the draw card is obtained from the draw pile; the winning hand is obtained by drawing the last available card from the draw pile; (4) if the winning hand is the all sequence hand, three fangs is added to the enhancement score if the two tsee sequences are in the same suit; and (5) if the winning hand is the all sequence hand, four fangs is added to the enhancement score if the two tsee sequences are in the same suit and are consecutive to each other.
 5. The game of claim 3, wherein the plurality of possible enhancement conditions includes at least four of the following enhancement conditions that add one fang to the enhancement score: the first pong group is comprised of a preselected unique designation not associated with any of the players; the first pong group is comprised of the unique designation that matches the dealer; the first pong group is comprised of the unique designation that matches the winning player; the winning hand does not contain any wild card; the draw card is obtained from the draw pile; the winning hand is obtained by the gong operation; and the winning hand is obtained by drawing the last available card from the draw pile.
 6. The game of claim 3, wherein one of the plurality of possible enhancement conditions includes the following enhancement condition: if the winning hand is the all 3-of-a-kind hand and the winning player had two gong operations for the winning hand, four fangs is added to the enhancement score.
 7. The game of claim 3, wherein one of the plurality of possible enhancement conditions includes the following enhancement conditions: if the winning hand is the all sequence hand, three fangs is added to the enhancement score if the two tsee sequences are in the same suit; and if the winning hand is the all sequence hand, four fangs is added to the enhancement score if the two tsee sequences are in the same suit and are consecutive to each other.
 8. The game of claim 1, wherein if the winning party draws the top card in the discard pile as the draw card for the winning hand, the party that discarded said top card in the discard pile as the draw card for the winning hand is responsible for all scores of any other player due the winning party for said winning hand.
 9. The game of claim 1, wherein the Chinese poker deck is comprised of: a first set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a first suit designation; a second set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a second suit designation; a third set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a third suit designation; a set of four East wind cards, each of which (“E”) bears an East Wind designation; a set of four South wind cards, each of which (“S”) bears a South Wind designation; a set of four West wind cards, each of which (“W”) bears a West Wind designation; a set of four North wind cards, each of which (“N”) bears a North Wind designation; a set of four Green Dragon cards, each of which (“GD”) bears a Green Dragon designation; and a first (“F1”), a second (“F2”), a third (“F3”), a fourth (“F4”) and a fifth (“F5”) wild designation parameter card.
 10. The game of claim 9, wherein the first suit designation is a circle designation, the second suit designation is a bamboo designation and the third suit designation is a script designation and each of the wild designation parameter cards has a unique feng shui designation.
 11. The game of claim 10, wherein the five unique Feng Shui parameter designations represent longevity, luck, wealth, health and fertility.
 12. A game for two to four players played with a Chinese poker deck of 52 cards having three different sets of nine cards in three suits of cards, each of said nine cards in one of said three suits of cards bearing a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9, five different sets of four cards bearing a unique designation, four of said unique designations representing a direction for order of play, and a set of five additional cards, each of which has a wild designation, comprising the steps of: (1) beginning a wind round in which a first of the players is a dealer with a first direction for order of play while each of the remaining players is assigned one of the three remaining unique designations representing a direction for order of play and a hand is played to a conclusion and then another of the players is made the dealer according to the three remaining unique designations and another hand is played and this process is repeated until each of the players has been the dealer once, each of the hands of the wind round being played according to the following steps: (a) beginning the hand by dealing each of the players a set of seven cards from the deck and then using the remainder of the deck as a draw pile; (b) having the dealer begin as a drawing player who draws a draw card from the draw pile and then does one of the following: (i) performing a gong operation in which the drawing player declares a group of four of the same card and then draws an additional gong card from the draw pile and proceeds to either perform another gong operation or do one of the following steps; (ii) ending the hand by declaring a winning hand; or (iii) discarding one of the drawing player's cards to form a discard pile in which discarded cards are discarded face up; (c) allowing each of the players in succession to become the drawing player who either draws one card from the draw pile or picks up the top card in the discard pile as the draw card unless another player claims the top card in the discard file according to a preselected set of rules for drawing the top card in the discard pile, and then, after one of the players draws the draw card as the drawing player, the drawing player does one of the following until there are no more cards in the draw pile and no player picks up the last top card in the discard pile which results in the hand being declared a draw hand with no scoring: (i) performing the gong operation and then proceeding to perform another gong operation or one of the following steps: (ii) ending the hand by declaring the winning hand; or (iii) discarding one of the drawing player's cards face up on the discard pile; and (d) scoring the winning hand according to a preselected set of scoring rules; wherein the winning hand must contain a pair of identical cards and two triplets, wherein a triplet is either a pong group of three identical cards or a tsee sequence of three consecutive numbers in a single suit of cards, and each of the cards from the set of five additional cards with the wild designation is a wild card that can be chosen to represent any card; and wherein the preselected set of rules for drawing the top card in the discard pile is that if two or more players want to pick up the top card in the discard pile, the first player according to a player position ranking with the highest hierarchical ranking from a hierarchical ranking system will be allowed to draw the top card in the discard pile, said hierarchical ranking system being comprised of the following rankings, in order from highest to lowest: the top card in the discard pile will be used to create the winning hand; the top card in the discard pile will be used to perform the gong operation; the top card in the discard pile will be used to form the pong group; or the top card in the discard pile will be used to form the tsee group; and wherein the player position ranking with the highest ranking is the drawing player followed by the remaining players based upon a preselected rule based upon the unique designations for the hand; and (2) adding up the scoring for each of the winning hands to determine a total scoring of the players for the wind round.
 13. The game of claim 12, wherein the preselected set of scoring rules is comprised of the following: (a) a basic structure score is calculated for the winning hand according to the following basic structure scoring rules: if the winning hand is a chicken chow hand in which the two triplets are a first pong group and a second tsee sequence, the chicken chow hand is worth half a fang; if the winning hand is an all sequence hand in which the two triplets are two tsee sequences, the all sequence hand is worth one fang; and if the winning hand is an all 3-of-a-kind hand in which the two triplets are two pong groups, the all 3-of-a-king hand is worth two fangs; (b) an enhancement score is calculated for the winning hand if any of a plurality of possible enhancement conditions is met by the winning hand; (c) the basic structure score and the enhancement score are added together to get a total score of fang that is converted to a unit score according to a fang scoring structure as follows: a half fang is worth 1 unit; one fang is worth 2 units; two fang is worth 4 units; three fang is worth 8 units; four fang is worth 16 units; five fang is worth 32 units; and six fang is worth 64 units; and (d) if the winning player is the dealer, the unit score is doubled.
 14. The game of claim 13, wherein the plurality of possible enhancement conditions is comprised of the following enhancement conditions: (1) at least four of the following enhancement conditions that add one fang to the enhancement score: the first pong group is comprised of a preselected unique designation not associated with any of the players; the first pong group is comprised of the unique designation that matches the dealer; the first pong group is comprised of the unique designation that matches the winning player; the winning hand does not contain any wild card; the draw card is obtained from the draw pile; the winning hand is obtained by the gong operation; and the winning hand is obtained by drawing the last available card from the draw pile; (2) if the winning hand is the all 3-of-a-kind hand and the winning player had two gong operations for the winning hand, four fangs is added to the enhancement score; (3) if the winning hand is the all sequence hand, three fangs is added to the enhancement score if the two tsee sequences are in the same suit; and (4) if the winning hand is the all sequence hand, four fangs is added to the enhancement score if the two tsee sequences are in the same suit and are consecutive to each other.
 15. The game of claim 14, wherein if the winning party draws the top card in the discard pile as the draw card for the winning hand, the party that discarded said top card in the discard pile as the draw card for the winning hand is responsible for all scores of any other player due the winning party for said winning hand.
 16. The game of claim 14, wherein the Chinese poker deck is comprised of: a first set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a first suit designation; a second set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a second suit designation; a third set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a third suit designation; a set of four East wind cards, each of which (“E”) bears an East Wind designation; a set of four South wind cards, each of which (“S”) bears a South Wind designation; a set of four West wind cards, each of which (“W”) bears a West Wind designation; a set of four North wind cards, each of which (“N”) bears a North Wind designation; a set of four Green Dragon cards, each of which (“GD”) bears a Green Dragon designation; and a first (“F1”), a second (“F2”), a third (“F3”), a fourth (“F4”) and a fifth (“F5”) wild designation parameter card.
 17. The game of claim 16, wherein the first suit designation is a circle designation, the second suit designation is a bamboo designation and the third suit designation is a script designation and each of the wild designation parameter cards has a unique feng shui designation.
 18. A game for two to four players played with a Chinese poker deck of 52 cards comprised of a first set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a circle designation; a second set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a bamboo designation; a third set of nine number cards, each of which bears a different designation representing the numbers 1 through 9 and a script designation; a set of four East wind cards, each of which (“E”) bears an East Wind designation; a set of four South wind cards, each of which (“S”) bears a South Wind designation; a set of four West wind cards, each of which (“W”) bears a West Wind designation; a set of four North wind cards, each of which (“N”) bears a North Wind designation; a set of four Green Dragon cards, each of which (“GD”) bears a Green Dragon designation; and a first (“F1”), a second (“F2”), a third (“F3”), a fourth (“F4”) and a fifth (“F5”) wild designation parameter card each of which has a feng shui designation, comprising the steps of: (1) beginning a wind round in which a first of the players is a dealer with the South Wind designation while each of the remaining players is assigned one of the South Wind, West Wind and North Wind designations and a hand is played to a conclusion and then another of the players is made the dealer according to the players' Wind designations and moving around a compass in a preselected direction and another hand is played and this process is repeated until each of the players has been the dealer once, each of the hands of the wind round being played according to the following steps: (a) beginning the hand by dealing each of the players a set of seven cards from the deck and then using the remainder of the deck as a draw pile; (b) having the dealer begin as a drawing player who draws a draw card from the draw pile and then does one of the following: (i) performing a gong operation in which the drawing player declares a group of four of the same card and then draws an additional gong card from the draw pile and proceeds to perform another gong operation or do one of the following steps; (ii) ending the hand by declaring a winning hand; or (iii) discarding one of the drawing player's cards to form a discard pile in which discarded cards are discarded face up; (c) allowing each of the players in succession to become the drawing player who either draws one card from the draw pile or picks up the top card in the discard pile as the draw card unless another player claims the top card in the discard file according to a preselected set of rules for drawing the top card in the discard pile, and then, after one of the players draws the draw card as the drawing player, the drawing player does one of the following until there are no more cards in the draw pile and no player picks up the last top card in the discard pile which results in the hand being declared a draw hand with no scoring: (i) performing the gong operation and then proceeding to perform another gong operation or one of the following steps: (ii) ending the hand by declaring the winning hand; or (iii) discarding one of the drawing player's cards face up on the discard pile; and (d) scoring the winning hand according to a preselected set of scoring rules; wherein the winning hand must contain a pair of identical cards and two triplets, wherein a triplet is either a pong group of three identical cards or a tsee sequence of three consecutive numbers in a single suit of cards, and each of the cards from the set of five additional cards with the wild designation is a wild card that can be chosen to represent any card; and wherein the preselected set of rules for drawing the top card in the discard pile is that if two or more players want to pick up the top card in the discard pile, the first player according to a player position ranking with the highest hierarchical ranking from a hierarchical ranking system will be allowed to draw the top card in the discard pile, said hierarchical ranking system being comprised of the following rankings, in order from highest to lowest: the top card in the discard pile will be used to create the winning hand; the top card in the discard pile will be used to perform the gong operation; the top card in the discard pile will be used to form the pong group; or the top card in the discard pile will be used to form the tsee group; and wherein the player position ranking with the highest ranking is the drawing player followed by the remaining players based upon a preselected rule based upon the unique designations for the hand; and wherein the preselected set of scoring rules is comprised of the following: (a) a basic structure score is calculated for the winning hand according to the following basic structure scoring rules: if the winning hand is a chicken chow hand in which the two triplets are a first pong group and a second tsee sequence, the chicken chow hand is worth half a fang; if the winning hand is an all sequence hand in which the two triplets are two tsee sequences, the all sequence hand is worth one fang; and if the winning hand is an all 3-of-a-kind hand in which the two triplets are two pong groups, the all 3-of-a-king hand is worth two fangs; (b) an enhancement score is calculated for the winning hand if any of a plurality of possible enhancement conditions is met by the winning hand; (c) the basic structure score and the enhancement score are added together to get a total score of fang that is converted to a unit score according to a fang scoring structure as follows: a half fang is worth 1 unit; one fang is worth 2 units; two fang is worth 4 units; three fang is worth 8 units; four fang is worth 16 units; five fang is worth 32 units; and six fang is worth 64 units; and (d) if the winning player is the dealer, the unit score is doubled; and (2) adding up the scoring for each of the winning hands to determine a total scoring of the players for the wind round.
 19. The game of claim 18, wherein if the winning party draws the common face up card as the draw card for the winning hand, the party that discarded said common face up card as the draw card for the winning hand is responsible for all scores of any other player due the winning party for said winning hand.
 20. The game of claim 18, wherein the preselected direction is clockwise from East to South to West to North. 